Meanings
- obsoleteuncountableOffal; waste animal product; organic matter unfit for consumption.
Claret is the universal medicine here, and mundungus port the bane and stupefaction of all society.
1767, November 5, George Faulkner, a letter to William Bowyer - archaicuncountablePoor-quality tobacco with a foul, rancid, or putrid smell.
Whom he brings in among us And bribes with mundungus;
1728 July 28, My Lady's Lamentation and Complaint Against the Dean, Jonathan Swift2 more examples
The whole town of Ryde could not supply a single leaf [of tea]; for as to what Mrs. Francis and the shop called by that name, it was not of Chinese growth. It did not indeed in the least resemble tea, either in smell or taste, or in any particular, unless in being a leaf: for it was in truth no other than a tobacco of the mundungus species.
1755, Henry Fielding, The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon, pages 130–131Nobody can doubt, particularly if country be taken into the consideration, that the grinders and retailers of Mundungus were among the author's encouragers. … that he had told the Secretary of the Treasury, that if the Mundungus was taxed, “he would be damn'd if ever he forgave him, while he had an existence.”
1801 May, William Cobbett, “Porcupine's Works; Containing Various Writings and Selections, Exhibiting a Faithful Picture of the United States of America; etc.”, in A Bone to Gnaw for the Democrats, Part I, volume 2, page 50
Origin
- Spanishmondongo“tripe, entrails”
- Englishmundungus
From the Spanish mondongo (“tripe, entrails”), perhaps via its English etymon mondongo.
More words from Spanish
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
mundungus. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mundungus
“mundungus.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mundungus. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mundungus,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mundungus.
Source: mundungus on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.